Private Die A noir dice-rolling game

Private Die is a quick-playing, easy to learn dice-roller. Play is extremely simple: You start with one clue (you were assigned to the case, after all) and a detective card that details your unique ability. Throughout the game, you'll question different witnesses to gain clues towards solving the case. Once you have 15 or more clues at the end of a round, you win! Congratulations!

Story

"Poor kid."

I grimaced, trying to squint through the heavy rain and make out some more details of the crime scene. It was useless. I had to get closer. I took a deep breath and approached the body. Mud sucked at the bottoms of my loafers, as if pleading me to go no further. But duty calls, and I trudged forward to join the other detectives at the scene.

I took a long draw on my cigarette and ashed it on the ground. I glanced up at the sergeant and motioned to the body.

"So they killed the broad right in the middle of the park? And no one saw anything?"

"Oh, we got witnesses," the sarge replied. "We got plenty of witnesses. The problem is, this rain's been messin' with their recollections, see? I need you and yous boys to get to the bottom of it."

Questioning witnesses is the only thing I live for anymore. When I'm in that interrogation room, free of the bureaucracy and corruption infecting the department, I can really put in some work. I know how to make witnesses sing like songbirds, and my accomplices ain't half bad at it either.

"You got it, boss."

I turned heel and headed back to the street. The whole cab ride back to the office, I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right with that body. She was a doll. She'd be a real looker if she was, well, alive. What was she even doing in this part of town? She couldn't have been a moonshiner or gangster. Things don't add up.

I shivered. The cold rain had penetrated all the way down to my bones. I rubbed my hands together and let the cab driver know that my stop was at the next intersection. Upon entering the station, I lit me up a new cigarette and yelled to the office girl to put on a fresh pot of coffee. It's going to be a long night.

Features

2-6 players

Private Die supports up to 6 players, but you can bring your own extra dice to include more if you want.

Ages 8+

There's some reading and small parts involved, plus the whole murder thing, but most kids catch on fast.

5-20 minutes

Rounds are super quick, and games can be shorter or longer depending on how you set up.

Gameplay Overview

Each round begins with revealing a witness card and rolling the witness die. The witness card details each witness's personality and applies a modifier to the round.

Players question the witness by rolling one or more questioning dice. The goal is to be as close to the witness value without going over.

At the end of the round whoever was the closest to the witness value without busting gains clues equal to the number of dice they rolled.

Want to play a demo of Private Die on your computer? Just unzip the archives and click privatedie.bat (Windows) or privatedie.command (OS X). Make sure to read the README for relevant notes, and keep in mind that it's generous to even call this an alpha version at this stage.

NOTE FOR MAC USERS: If you get an error about not having permission to run the file, you need to open a terminal in the main "mac" folder and type sudo chmod -R 755 * . It will prompt you for your OS X password. After you type it, you should be able to run privatedie.command. Wary about granting the permissions? Read the source on Github.